Reminiscence – C. Marie Mosley

Can someone’s entire life – the only one they have ever known – be a complete lie? The truth is out … and Coralie Collier is about to find just what lies within that truth – the truth about herself, the truth about her heritage, and the truth about her purpose …

In Reminiscence, lies a story of a natural born heroine, Coralie Collier — she just doesn’t know it yet. Coralie lives a simple, almost boring life, that is, until things in her life start to get interesting. Outlandish dreams, bizarre and dangerous encounters, and missing pieces to her memory, are all incredibly important fragmented clues that could help Coralie in finding out her true identity. Along with these clues, and the help of an old family friend, maybe there is a chance for Coralie to find out what is going on around her before it’s too late … and her true purpose has been compromised. All of the characters’ lives within the story swirl around her – and they all know the truth – the truth about the lives they were all born to live… Could there be more to her life than she ever knew? Could there really be more to her surroundings than what meets the eye?

Get drawn into Coralie’s world and explorations as she attempts to discover what secrets are hidden in her past and what journeys are in store for her future.

When I first read the synopsis, what intrigued me the most was that the heroine of this series, Coralie, was experiencing some form of missing pieces to her memory. My immediate question was why? Followed with… how could this happen? And… could she possibly find a way to retrieve these missing pieces before it’s too late?

With these questions in mind, I began reading…

I must say I am in some way surprised but also somewhat frustrated when I start to notice what could be actually happening to Coralie. Those close to Coralie all appear to be good-natured people. They sound genuinely trustworthy. They have a sense of good humor. I can tell they have the inside scoop about what’s really going on but for some reasons, they just seem to be too hesitant to inform Coralie of the truth, of her heritage, of her purpose. That’s when I feel a little underwhelmed. No doubt, Coralie seems unhappy and frustrated by her scanty, scattered recollection of what could have happened to her entire life, but does she take a stand and do something to rectify her situation? Not really. Instead, she seems to be focusing her attention elsewhere. And while her inability to focus could be in line with her memory loss, I just find it a bit draining to watch her not taking herself seriously enough to make some positive changes to her situation.

Another issue that I have is that I find myself not disliking Coralie, but at the same time, I don’t seem to be able to find something substantial enough for me to like her. Perhaps because of the illustration of memory losses, Coralie doesn’t come across as a vivacious heroine with a distinctive personality, but when I don’t seem to be able to connect with the main character at a level that I’d hope, I find it somewhat hard to stay interested to keep reading.

Fortunately, the pacing of the story starts picking up about half-way through. Things seem to be taking some interesting turns and I find myself flipping through the pages at a much quicker speed.

What I like about the story is that there are some twists and turns that I don’t quite see them coming, and when things are happening in a way that can no longer be hidden from Coralie, the revelation comes out in a way that helps me see something that is so much bigger than what I could imagine, and I must say wow, Mosley, I totally didn’t see that coming… How could you hold this back from me for so long?? But wait… there’s more… oh gosh, now I’m AMAZED!!

So, if you ask me if I like this story from start to finish, my answer is no.

I was a little underwhelmed by the first-half of the book, but I’m happy that I’ve kept reading.

Reminiscence is a story that may catch you off-guard — in a good way. If I may make one request to the author, I’d ask to see a bit more editing to be done in the published copy, but overall, I’d say this story has given me a nice introduction to the world of the Empyreal warriors, and I’d be interested to find out more when the sequel comes out.